Addition of an oxygen enhancer into internal combustion engines provides large amounts of horsepower by allowing an engine to burn more fuel. One widely used oxygen enhancer is nitrous oxide, which is sometimes referred to as "nitrous." Burning more fuel creates more cylinder pressure pushing down on the pistons, which results in more engine power. When the nitrous oxide is injected into an engine cylinder, the initial combustion within the cylinder creates enough heat to separate the nitrous oxide into its two components, nitrogen and oxygen. Once this separation occurs, the oxygen can then be used to burn more fuel. At this point, the combustion side of the equation becomes very important. All of the extra oxygen the nitrous oxide provides must have fuel to burn or severe engine damage will occur. As a result, supplemental fuel (also know as enrichment fuel) must be added when nitrous oxide is injected into the engine. When the amount of nitrous oxide and the amount of supplemental fuel is controlled precisely, large amounts of power can be made with no harm to the engine.
Known nitrous oxide injection systems include systems for electronic or computerized control of nitrous oxide and enrichment fuel feed. This art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,275 to Dahlgren, U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,281 to Meaney, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,628 to Meaney, et al. Each of these systems is relatively difficult to install and requires complicated management of or replacement of stock engine fuel components, such as fuel injectors and electronic or computerized fuel control systems. None of these known systems uses an easy to install system that uses unmodified stock engine components and a bolt-on system using nitrous oxide pressure to control fuel feed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,843 to Norcia, et al., describes a protective system for preventing excessive buildup of nitrous oxide in the delivery system using a second valve arrangement. The device of Norcia does not describe an easy to install, bolt-on system that uses varying nitrous oxide pressure to vary fuel feed, nor does it include an accelerator actuated nitrous oxide injection system.
One known system for a relatively easy to install nitrous oxide kit that is designed as a "dry" system (i.e., wherein the nitrous oxide is not combined with the fuel in the fuel system) with fuel enrichment accomplished through an increase in fuel pressure is a system developed by Nitrous Oxide Systems, Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif. The Nitrous Oxide Systems device utilizes a nitrous oxide pressure regulator that is teed off of the main delivery hose. This regulator provides a pre-set pressure source to the fuel pressure regulator diaphragm, regardless of nitrous bottle pressure. A problem with the Nitrous Oxide Systems device is that it does not provide a varying pressure to the pressure regulator diaphragm with varying nitrous bottle pressure. Thus, the Nitrous Oxide Systems device does not provide a varied fuel pressure to optimize fuel enrichment as the nitrous bottle pressure changes.
Another problem with known systems is that many current nitrous oxide systems use a throttle arm actuated micro-switch in order to activate nitrous oxide feed. This method requires fabrication of a mounting bracket for the switch, as well as placement of the switch for proper operation. The known art does not include a single, nearly universal system of activation of nitrous oxide feed that does not depend on the particular features of the throttle arm of the vehicle in which the system is installed.
Thus, there remains a need for a nitrous oxide injection system, method, and device that is self-contained, easy to install, and self-adjusting for fuel enrichment and nitrous oxide feed.